Somewhat lost in the shuffle these past few days [for obvious reasons] is how the U.S. attack on Syrian territory last week may be imperiling a long-term security agreement between Iraq and the United States.
With much of the Arab world in uproar over the U.S. incursion from bases inside Iraq, we translated this article from the Iraqi News Agency, which is a statement by the influential Sunni group, The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq. Keep in mind that the recent calm in Iraq was achieved with the help of the Sunni Awakening Councils …
According to the statement, which calls the Status of Forces Agreement with the United States, the ‘Surrender Agreement,’ signing the deal would give the Americans Carte Blanche to launch ‘any attacks they please’ against Iraq’s ‘Arabic Brethren’ from Iraqi territory.
“American arrogance and contempt for the lives of ordinary civilians has exceeded Iraq’s borders and moved into its sister Arab countries. Syria was the first but certainly won’t be the last – as long as the terms of the Status of Forces Agreement allow the Americans to launch whatever military operation they like from Iraqi territory.”
The article also includes efforts by the Muqtada al-Sadr bloc to have the security deal killed.
Translated By Nicolas Dagher
October 28, 2008
Iraq – Iraqi News Agency – Original Article (Arabic)
The Association of Muslim Scholars of Iraq [a Sunnis group ] has issued a statement saying that, “American arrogance and disregard toward the lives of ordinary civilians has exceeded the borders of Iraq and moved to its sister Arab countries. Syria was the first, but it certainly won’t be the last as long as the terms of the agreement [the Status of Forces Agreement] which is soon to be signed, allows them to undertake whatever military operations it wants from the Iraqi territory.”
The statement, issued by the group’s Secretariat in regard to the aggression of U.S. occupation forces last night against one of the Syrian villages near the Iraqi border – and which led to the killing of several people and the wounding of others – condemned U.S. aggression targeting any neighboring Arab country- particularly attacks that target Arab brothers launched from Iraqi territory.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated Iraqi coverage of the Iraq War.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US